Wraith: The Oblivion

Wraith: The Oblivion

Wraith: The Oblivion 2nd Edition cover
Designer(s)	Mark Rein·Hagen, Sam Chupp, Jennifer Hartshorn
Publisher(s)	White Wolf
Publication date	1994 (1st edition) February 1, 1996 (2nd edition)
Genre(s)	Horror
System(s)	Storyteller System

Wraith: The Oblivion is a role-playing game designed by Mark Rein·Hagen. It is set in the afterlife of White Wolf Game Studio's World of Darkness setting, in which the players take on characters who are recently dead and are now ghosts.

Wraith: The Oblivion featured an artistically consistent depiction of the afterlife and strong emotional themes, but was is the least commercially popular of the World of Darkness games. White Wolf discontinued their production of the game line in 1999, before having published all material that was originally planned.^[1]

Following the game's cancellation in 1999, White Wolf revisited some of Wraith's themes in their role-playing miniseries Orpheus. Their 2009 release, Geist: The Sin-Eaters, worked as something of a spiritual successor to Wraith the Oblivion. In 2011, online role playing game store DriveThruRPG.com began offering the Wraith the Oblivion books in a print on demand format through the DriveThruRPG web site, making all books available for purchase once again.^[2] A 20th Anniversary print edition has also been announced by The Onyx Path Publishing. ^[3]

Main Concept

The game of Wraith: The Oblivion sets the players as characters who have recently died and found themselves within a grim afterlife. Characters have the options of struggling to find a means of ascend into a 'true' afterlife (referred to in the game as Transcendence), become embroiled in the politics of the afterlife's denizens, or gradually succumb to the dreaded Oblivion that seeks to devour all newly deceased souls.

Wraiths draw their strengths from the passions that held them to the living world. In game-terms, each character possesses a Fetter, an object, place or person which binds them to the world of the living. They can draw on this to gain emotional strength. However, each Wraith also possesses a secondary personality called a Shadow. Their Shadow, often portrayed by another player, works to assert dominance over the character. The Shadow's motives are always self-destruction of the Wraith. With a mix of emotional fetters and the confrontational play style that the Shadow presents, games of Wraith the Oblivion are often powerfully emotive.

Setting

Wraith: The Oblivion primarily takes place in the Deadlands of the western world. There are two main regions of the afterlife within the game's setting. The first is referred to as the Shadowlands, which is a darkened reflection of the living world. Wraiths can explore the landscapes and cities as they were during their mortal life, but are unable to interact with it in any meaningful way without the use of special ghostly powers called Arcanoi.

Deeper into the underworld is the Tempest, a perpetually churning chaotic sea of darkness. Within the Tempest are several islands of stable reality, the largest one of which is Empire of Stygia (also called the Dark Kingdom of Iron), founded by the legendary Charon. A massive city-state, Stygia's authoritarian governing body, The Hierarchy, stands opposed to the disparate Renegades, who seek the freedom of an anarchic state, and to the Heretics, cults formed in search of Transcendence (officially proclaimed by the Hierarchy to be neither possible nor desirable). Unaffiliated wraiths are referred to as Freewraiths. The game permits the players to select either of these factions as playable options.

All Wraiths are constantly at risk from Spectres, beings which have become entirely possessed by the Oblivion and lurk within the seas of the Tempest. Most Spectres are the result of a Shadow taking complete control over a Wraith's personality. They are ruled in sections by ultra-powerful beings known as Malfeans (nightmarish eldrich entities that exist outside of reality). Ferrymen also exist, lone pathfinders who exist above political concern and act as guides through the Tempest and withstand the threat of the Spectres.

Because of the risk of the Spectres, the Hierarchy maintains their own standing army, divided into multiple different Legions. As well as striving to drive back the threat of the Spectres, each Legion's commanding Lord and Lady vie for control over Stygia for their own ends. The slave trade is highly active within the Hierarchy, with many Wraiths bought and sold for trade. Also, as physical objects rarely exist within the afterlife, some unfortunate Wraiths may be subjected to 'Soulforging', a process that renders them into inanimate objects - for example, each coin that exists for trade within Stygia is created from one forged Wraith.

System

Wraith: The Oblivion uses White Wolf's Storyteller System. As in all Storyteller System games, there are several special rules and systems that support the theme of the game. The most notable are:

Pathos

Pathos is an emotional energy that the Wraith is able to draw from their passions. They can use this to power their various Arcanoi abilities, to resist their Shadow, and to heal their Corpus.

Corpus (Health)

As the characters are already dead, they do not necessarily sustain physical damage from attacks. Instead, they have a rating score called Corpus which measures their ability to maintain physical integrity. When Corpus falls to zero, a wraith may undergo a Harrowing, a nightmarish psychodrama which pits the wraith against his/her Shadow in a battle for control.

Arcanos

Arcanos, the magical abilities that Wraiths can use, are traditionally held by members of secret groups called Guilds. Although membership within a Guild is outlawed by the oppressive Hierarchy, they still exist in secret and are playable options within the game. The Arcanos and their respective Guilds are:

• Inhabit: the art of possessing inanimate objects, a skill of the Artificers Guild
• Keening: the art of inducing emotion through song, a skill of the Chanteurs Guild
• Argos: the art of the art of travel, especially in the Tempest, a skill of the Harbingers Guild
• Pandemonium: the art of causing chaos in the traditional "ghostly" manner, a skill of the Haunters Guild
• Moliate: the art of bodily transfiguration (similar to Soulforging), a skill of the Masquers Guild
• Lifeweb: the art of manipulating Fetters and their connections to the wraiths who possess them, a skill of the Monitors Guild
• Fatalism: the art of reading a wraith's past, present, and future, a skill of the Oracles Guild
• Castigate: the art of taming the Shadows of other wraiths, a skill of the Pardoners Guild
• Embody: the art of manifesting in the mortal world, a skill of the Proctors Guild
• Puppetry: the art of possessing mortals, a skill of the Puppeteers Guild
• Phantasm: the art of interacting with the dreams of mortals, a skill of the Sandmen Guild
• Outrage: the art of using telekinetic force, usually manifesting as traditional "poltergeist" activity, a skill of the Spooks Guild
• Usury: the art of manipulating and drawing on the emotional power of Pathos, a skill of the Usurers Guild

Other Arcanos exist and are possessed by smaller Guilds. The Wraith's Shadow also possesses their own variety of Dark Arcanos, with which it may exert control over the Wraith and the world around it.

Books

• Wraith: The Oblivion. White Wolf. 1994. ISBN 1-56504-133-X. WW6000. 
• Wraith Storyteller's Kit. White Wolf. 1994. ISBN 1-56504-168-2. WW6002. 
• Love Beyond Death. White Wolf. 1994. ISBN 1-56504-611-0. WW6004. 
• The Face of Death. White Wolf. 1994. ISBN 1-56504-122-4. WW6005. 
• Haunts. White Wolf. 1994. ISBN 1-56504-610-2. WW6060. 
• Wraith Players Kit. White Wolf. 1994. ISBN 1-56504-132-1. WW6100. 
• Midnight Express. White Wolf. 1994. ISBN 1-56504-156-9. WW6101. 
• Necropolis: Atlanta. White Wolf. 1994. ISBN 1-56504-164-X. WW6200. 
• Sea of Shadows. White Wolf. 1995. ISBN 1-56504-612-9. WW6006. 
• Wraith Players Guide. White Wolf. 1995. ISBN 1-56504-601-3. WW6007. 
• The Quick & the Dead. White Wolf. 1995. ISBN 1-56504-613-7. WW6008. 
• The Hierarchy. White Wolf. 1995. ISBN 1-56504-614-5. WW6009. 
• Guildbook: Artificers. White Wolf. 1995. ISBN 1-56504-661-7. WW6300. 
• Guildbook: Sandmen. White Wolf. 1995. ISBN 1-56504-662-5. WW6301. 
• Dark Kingdom of Jade. White Wolf. 1995. ISBN 1-56504-615-3. WW6010. 
• Guildbook: Masquers. White Wolf. 1995. ISBN 1-56504-604-8. WW6011. 
• Dark Kingdom of Jade Adventures. White Wolf. 1995. ISBN 1-56504-617-X. WW6012. 
• Reflections: Spectres. White Wolf. 1995. ISBN 1-56504-650-1. WW6902. 
• The Risen. White Wolf. 1996. ISBN 1-56504-663-3. WW6302. 
• Wraith: The Oblivion, 2nd Ed. White Wolf. 1996. ISBN 1-56504-600-5. WW6600. 
• Buried Secrets. White Wolf. 1996. ISBN 1-56504-603-X. WW6601. 
• Shadow Players Guide. White Wolf. 1997. ISBN 1-56504-602-1. WW6013. 
• Mediums: Speakers with the Dead. White Wolf. 1997. ISBN 1-56504-619-6. WW6102. 
• Guildbook: Haunters. White Wolf. 1997. ISBN 1-56504-604-8. WW6303. 
• Guildbook: Pardoners and Puppeteers. White Wolf. 1997. ISBN 1-56504-665-X. WW6304. 
• Charnel Houses of Europe: The Shoah. White Wolf. 1997. ISBN 1-56504-651-X. WW6903. 
• Guildbook: Spooks and Oracles. White Wolf. 1998. ISBN 1-56504-666-8. WW6305. 
• Doomslayers: Into the Labyrinth. White Wolf. 1998. ISBN 1-56504-635-8. WW6064. 
• Renegades. White Wolf. 1998. ISBN 1-56504-636-6. WW6065. 
• The Book of Legions. White Wolf. 1998. ISBN 1-56504-652-8. WW6063. 
• World of Darkness: Tokyo. White Wolf. 1998. ISBN 1-56504-633-1. WW6103. 
• Wraith: The Great War. White Wolf. 1999. ISBN 1-56504-634-X. WW6800. 
• Ends of Empire. White Wolf. 1999. ISBN 1-56504-618-8. WW6014. 

References

External links

• White Wolf's Official Wraith: The Oblivion wiki: http://wiki.white-wolf.com/worldofdarkness/index.php?title=Wraith%3A_The_Oblivion_Second_Edition